A Big Fan Of Pansies – QRG Gets The Madame Arcati Treatment

I am utterly honoured to have been interviewed by the inimitable Madame Arcati this week. Not unlike me, she is a bit of a trouble-maker, a character and a lover of the literary arts. Arcati asked me about my recent ‘outing’ by Paul Burston and Julie Bindel, a voodoo spell they arranged for me, and my interest in homosexuals, especially my fascination with a certain Metrodaddy.

This is a selection of Madame’s questions and my responses:

Q: He [Paul Burston] described you as a troll and an anonymous blogger who was ghastly about ‘feministas’ such as Suzanne Moore. A troll in my dictionary is someone who is repeatedly abusive and threatening on the internet – is that you QRG? Has it come to this? And what’s wrong with Suzanne? She has great shoes, loves a glass at night and has a big heart, doncha think?

I was born out of the womb of feminism, back in 1970. And ever since then I have been told it is the only way to look at men, women, and gender relations. It took me forty years, but I finally realised it’s not the only dogma in town. And Suzanne Moore once said in the Guardianthat she is a feminist because ‘men do horrible, horrible things’. Which I think is a bit mean to men. I’m not a troll (whatever that is). I am just someone who annoys the media establishment. And takes some pleasure in that.

Q: But you do mention [redacted] a lot on Twitter – and he’s blocked you from his website and Twitter account. Are you trolling the poor mite? Are you trying to push your way back into his affections? You can tell Madame (where to go…).

My subconscious may be trying to get back into [redacted] affections, but consciously no. I have found his work on metrosexuality – men’s ‘desire to be desired’ – to be the most exciting theory I’ve read in years. And I do go on about [redacted] quite a lot it’s true. I also helped him publish his 2011 book Metrosexy , so I have my uses.

Q: Are you quietishly riotous?

Yes, and sometimes not so quiet.

Q: Are you a cunt-cocker or a cunt-cunter or a cunt-cocker-cunter or a cockless-cuntless cunter? Just asking.

I’m a proud cocksucker.

Q: Now I know you’re a conceptual sexual sit-down activist of some sort with an interest in the work of Michel Foucault – you’ve even written a novel that has Foucault’s name in the title. Now, I get confused. Plainly you’re fascinated by queers yet you fall out with a lot of male queers. What’s the story?

My novella is called Scribbling On Foucault’s Walls, and it is about what might have happened if Michel Foucault had had a daughter. Sometimes I think in a previous life I might have been an old-school homosexual, like the marvellous Kenneth Williams or Charles Hawtrey. Much of my interest in homos is identification. But I’m a girl so they (apparently) don’t identify with me. And this can cause resentment on my part.

Q: Do you have a cat?

A cat? No, I’m not a lesbian.

Q: Would you say there is a male queer conspiracy in the media as distinct from a male cock-cunting media conspiracy to turn the world into one big stereotype? (Personally I’ve always felt outside all groups and associations – but I love the word queer)

I think the gay men of the London media set (and their equivalents like Dan Savage and Andrew Sullivan in America) are feeling very insecure at the moment, bless them. Because the fact is people don’t care as much as they used to about who has sex with whom, and how. We actually live in quite open-minded times, and this is not very good for gay men’s sense of being special and specially oppressed. I love the word queer too but that is too subversive for many. And Suzanne Moore actually wrote to me once saying that ‘queer bollox’ (sic) belonged in the 90s where it came from.

I enjoyed the interview, though my blood did boil slightly when one commenter said “why stand up for men? they rule the world anyway”

This particular argument has got to be a contender for the stupidest in the feminist ‘arsenal’ (I had a ruder phrase in mind – also involving the first 4 letters of that word)

“Men rule the world” isn’t true, of course, what is true is that the 0.001% of people who hold influence in companies and governments and armies are mostly men. However family law in western countries is slanted so that women have a great deal of power within families – the most important aspect of life for the other 99% of men. Put that in your proverbial pipe, feminists, and smoke it.

I should have said this over at Madame A’s.. ho hum. You can guarantee I’ll say it again in about 5 more internet places (and maybe 4 people will read it)

“I enjoyed the interview, though my blood did boil slightly when one commenter said “why stand up for men? they rule the world anyway””

What gets me is… how do we know these guys are men, anyway?

Do we think a transgender woman is a man because she may have a penis? No. Being a man is about identifying with other men. There’s no reason to believe these jackanapes in charge identify with other men, and every reason to believe they don’t.

Madame Arcati no less! I was introduced to her by you Quiet Girl and I’ve had nothing but smiles and laughter to show for it since…thanks!

Just listened to your video.blog Typhon Blue and your characterization of hierarchy and its inclusions/exclusions is definitely much more on target than the simpleton wholesale gender patriarchal sexual class theory that gets marketed about by the usual political suspects.